THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230215
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Bell Atlantic-Virginia will change the boundary of the new 540 area code to include nearly all of Stafford County and to leave most of Loudoun County in the 703 area code.
When the state's third area code was announced July 6, residents of those counties complained about having to dial the extra digits to telephone other county residents and services.
``We are making these changes in an effort to better meet the needs of our customers who are located near the boundary line,'' said Bell Atlantic President and CEO Hugh R. Stallard.
``Our customers have made it clear there is a need to tie the communities of Leesburg and Ashburn in with 703 customers in the eastern part of the county. Moreover, we have heard from a number of Stafford customers who prefer to be aligned with the Fredericksburg metropolitan area in the new 540 area code.''
The original plan was the most economical, but did not address the concerns of Loudoun and Stafford residents, Stallard said. It followed the boundary of the Washington regional calling area established by the Justice Department in the 1984 breakup of the Bell system.
The new area code goes into effect July 15, 1995.
It will split the 703 area code, leaving the fast-growing suburbs closest to the District of Columbia with the old area code and assigning the 540 code to Western Virginia and the rest of Northern Virginia.
The earlier plan would have placed Leesburg in the 540 area code and the eastern portion of Loudoun County in 703. The revised plan puts Leesburg and Ashburn (numbers that begin with 443, 771, 777, 779 and 729) in the 703 area code.
The Stafford County area that will be switched to 540 has telephone numbers that begin with 657, 659, and 720. Only Stafford's Triangle area (numbers that begin with 221 and 441) will remain in the 703 area code.
Stallard said the expansion of the 703 area code to include Leesburg would be offset somewhat by moving the southern end of the 703 boundary closer to Washington because of the Stafford change.
Richmond-based Bell Atlantic is adding the new area code because of the growth of the Northern Virginia area. Bell Atlantic attributes much of the growth to the increased popularity of facsimile machines, pagers and cellular phones.
Bell Atlantic officials have emphasized that the change is unrelated to long distance calling or tolls. The introduction of the 540 area code has ``absolutely no effect on local calling or rates,'' Stallard said. ``Those calls that are local today will be local tomorrow.''
Bell Atlantic-Virginia is a subsidiary of Bell Atlantic Corp., based in Philadelphia. by CNB